We need that legislation to go hand in hand with the Bill,” she said at a Malaysian Bar forum on Monday.The Malaysian government is currently pursuing one of the country’s biggest legal reforms in history, by proposing to amend the Federal Constitution to split the AG and PP roles.Currently, a 12-member bipartisan parliamentary special select committee (PSSC) is studying ways to improve this Bill.The proposed Bill contains some safeguards to protect the PP – who will have the power to decide whether to charge or drop charges – from simply being fired or sacked.Here’s what the proposed Bill says on how someone can lose their job as the PP: Reasons to remove a PP include “misconduct”; a tribunal would consider whether a PP should be removed; and the Yang di-Pertuan Agong would remove the PP if the tribunal recommends it.But Cheah said the Malaysian Bar disagrees with the word “misconduct”, and instead recommended that a new enabling law make a Code of Conduct legally-binding on the PP. “And if there is an enabling legislation and you spell out what is the Code of Conduct that is expected of the PP within the enabling legislation, then instead of using the word ‘misconduct’ in the Constitution, you talk about if there’s any breach of any Code of Conduct.“And then in order to give effect to that, you have that legislation in order for you to fall back on,” she said.She said Malaysia needs a law like OPPA to spell out the mechanism to remove a PP, how the tribunal would be established and who would sit on the tribunal, and who can petition for a PP’s removal and the grounds for the petition.

Projek SAMA Convener Ngeow Chow Ying speaks at a forum discussing the separation of powers between the Attorney General and Public Prosecutor in Kuala Lumpur on April 20, 2026. — Picture by Raymond Manuel Having a PP in Malaysia that is accountable and transparent, not just independent At the same forum, civil society group Projek SAMA convener Ngeow Chow Ying also said Malaysia should have an enabling law on the PP, noting that the UK, Canada and Australia also have such laws.She said Malaysia does need to amend the Federal Constitution to establish the office of the PP and its core powers, while the enabling Act would cover all the details to make this work — the PP’s appointment process, tenure rules, code of ethics, and the PP’s accountability to Parliament.“And that is the very crucial piece of legislation we want to push the government to undertake in the shortest time,” the lawyer said of the enabling Act.Ngeow said there should be a Prosecution Code of Conduct, as well as published guidelines – including for how the PP decides whether to charge or not – that should bind all public prosecutors. While the Malaysian government’s aim in separating the AG’s and PP’s roles is to ensure that the prosecution’s decisions are seen as independent from political influence, Ngeow said such independence must come with accountability to Parliament.

Ngeow said the PP should not only be accountable, but should also be transparent by making information available to the public. “We are not speaking this in a vacuum but looking at other countries that do the same thing as well,” Ngeow said, referring to the UK, Canada, Australia as countries that already implement these accountability and transparency measures for their prosecution. The Parliament building in Kuala Lumpur. — Picture by Yusof Isa Let Parliament have a role in appointing Malaysia’s PP, just like in other countriesDuring the forum, independent policy strategy consultant and former lawyer Maha Balakrishnan proposed that Parliament be given a role in the process to appoint the PP, saying that this is not a “new” or “novel” idea.She said many countries have already included Parliament in their process of appointing prosecutors, including Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Chile which rank high on global rankings for rule of law.Addressing the idea that involving Parliament would risk politicising the PP’s appointment process, Maha said: “Well, no, we say not necessarily, because there are ways in which you can control the role of Parliament.”Maha explained that civil society is suggesting that Parliament be given a “very limited role” by having only a “veto power” on potential PP candidates.Under this proposal, sh